New York City has recorded 414 homicides so far in 2012, compared with 515 for the same period in 2011, the New York Times reports. That is a striking decline from murder totals in the low-2,000s that were common in the early 1990s, and is below the record low: 471, set in 2009. Overall crime is up, driven by an increase in thefts.

Police said thefts of Apple products had risen by 3,890, which was more than the overall increase in "major crimes." Data do not tell the whole story, and several homicides this year stood out as particularly disturbing, given the age of the victims and the manner of death. Detectives described the stabbing deaths of two children at the hands of their nanny in their apartment in October as among the most horrific crimes they could recall. Of the 400 murders in 2012, 223 were gunshot victims, 84 were stabbed to death, 43 died of blunt trauma and 11 died of asphyxiation.